Mollie Tibbetts Case Shows Cost of Not Enforcing Immigration Laws

President Donald Trump: You heard about today with the illegal alien coming in, very sadly, from Mexico, and you saw what happened to that incredible, beautiful young woman. It should have never happened. Illegally in our country. We’ve had a huge impact, but the laws are so bad. The immigration laws are such a disgrace.

Katrina Trinko: That was President Trump Tuesday night at a rally, speaking about Mollie Tibbetts, the missing college student whose case has gained nationwide coverage. On Tuesday, it was announced that Cristhian Bahena Rivera, a 24-year-old who is reportedly an illegal immigrant, was being charged for first-degree murder in the Tibbetts case.

Joining us to discuss is Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Hans, this case has brought renewed attention to the issue of illegal immigration and crime. Does the U.S. need to change policy to deal with this issue?

von Spakovsky: The answer is yes. What’s so sad about what happened to Mollie Tibbetts is that she’s one of many Americans who have lost their lives because of our lack of enforcement of our immigration laws.

I’ll give you a quick example of what I mean. In February of this year, the Texas Department of Public Safety released a study. What they did is they took a look at all of the aliens who were in state and county jails all over Texas from 2011 through 2018. Two-thirds of them are here illegally. They found that those individuals had been charged with 650,000 criminal offenses, including 600 murders.

There are literally hundreds of victims who would be alive today in Texas if those illegal aliens had been stopped at the border or, when they were caught inside the United States, had been quickly deported.

Sanctuary cities who provide sanctuaries for illegal aliens, including those who are arrested and put in local jails, are just creating sanctuaries for criminals.

Daniel Davis: We don’t often hear about those cases where folks are killed by those who are here illegally. We knew about Kate Steinle and some others that made some headlines. Looking at this case, tell us what we know about the guy who killed Mollie Tibbetts.

von Spakovsky: Well, supposedly, he hadn’t been arrested before. His local employer claims that they checked the E-Verify system and that he cleared. We’ll have to see if that’s really true or whether that’s simply a claim that they’re making. It’s hard for me to believe that there weren’t a lot of ...

Read More HERE